Chef Lupita
Aceite de Chiltepin Bajacaliforniano
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Recado de Toda Clase Oaxaqueño
Created by
Oaxaca's foundational dry spice base, canela, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, and oregano de monte, toasted on the comal and ground fine. The hidden DNA inside the seven moles and a dozen adobos.
Sauces & Condiments
Mexican
Make Ahead
Batch Cooking
15 min
Active Time
10 min cook•25 min total
YieldAbout 1/2 cup (enough to season 4 to 6 batches of mole, adobo, or guisado)
This is Oaxacan. Not Yucatecan. The recados of Yucatan are wet pastes built on achiote and sour orange. The recado de toda clase from Oaxaca is dry: a ground spice base of canela, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, and oregano de monte, toasted on a comal and stored in a glass jar on the cook's shelf. It is the seasoning that lives behind the seven moles, the adobos, the guisados, the meats braised in clay. You do not eat it on its own. You build with it.
Diana Kennedy documented this base in the senoras' kitchens of the Valles Centrales decades ago, and the cooks she sat with had been making it the same way for generations before that. The proportions shift slightly from house to house, more clove here, more oregano there, but the structure is constant. Every Oaxacan kitchen has a small jar of it within arm's reach of the comal. When the cook starts a mole amarillo or an adobo for pollo, she does not start from zero. She starts from the recado.
The oregano makes the difference. Oaxacan oregano de monte is not the Mediterranean oregano you find in supermarkets. It is wilder, more resinous, with notes of pine and earth. If you cannot get it, use Mexican oregano. If you cannot get Mexican oregano, do not make this recipe yet. Go to a Mexican grocery, find what you need, and come back. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
My mother kept three jars on her shelf: a recado for moles, a polvo for adobos, and one she labeled simply 'Oaxaca' that she had brought back from a trip to Tlacolula in 1979. She used it sparingly, a teaspoon at a time, like medicine. When the jar emptied she made another batch from her notes and labeled it the same way. That is what this powder is. A pantry inheritance. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.
The Spanish word 'recado' derives from the verb 'recadar,' to gather or arrange, and in colonial New Spain it described any prepared seasoning a cook kept on hand. Oaxaca's dry recados evolved from the convergence of pre-Columbian dry-toasting traditions practiced by Zapotec and Mixtec cooks with the spice cargo that arrived through the Manila galleon trade between 1565 and 1815, which brought Asian cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper to the port of Acapulco and inland to Oaxaca's markets. Diana Kennedy's documentation of the recado de toda clase in her 1972 work on Oaxacan cooking helped establish that the state's celebrated moles were not improvised compositions but built on a small repertoire of standardized dry bases, a fact local cooks had always known but the wider culinary world had overlooked.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
canela mexicana (true Ceylon cinnamon)
Quantity
2 sticks (about 6 inches total)
broken into small pieces
whole black peppercorns
Quantity
2 tablespoons
whole allspice berries (pimienta gorda)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
whole cloves
Quantity
1 teaspoon
cumin seeds
Quantity
1 teaspoon
dried Oaxacan oregano (oregano de monte)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Mexican oregano is acceptable if Oaxacan is unavailable
dried thyme
Quantity
1 teaspoon
dried marjoram
Quantity
1 teaspoon
dried bay leaves
Quantity
2
preferably hoja de laurel mexicano, crumbled
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| canela mexicana (true Ceylon cinnamon)broken into small pieces | 2 sticks (about 6 inches total) |
| whole black peppercorns | 2 tablespoons |
| whole allspice berries (pimienta gorda) | 1 tablespoon |
| whole cloves | 1 teaspoon |
| cumin seeds | 1 teaspoon |
| dried Oaxacan oregano (oregano de monte)Mexican oregano is acceptable if Oaxacan is unavailable | 3 tablespoons |
| dried thyme | 1 teaspoon |
| dried marjoram | 1 teaspoon |
| dried bay leavespreferably hoja de laurel mexicano, crumbled | 2 |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet, 10 inches or larger
- •Metate, molcajete, or dedicated electric spice grinder
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Clean glass jar with tight-fitting lid for storage
Instructions
- 1
Heat the comal
Set a dry cast iron comal or heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Let it warm for three or four minutes. The pan needs to be evenly hot, not screaming. Spices burn faster than chiles and there is no recovering a burnt clove. If you can hold your palm two inches above the surface for four seconds, you are ready.
Use a comal you have toasted spices on before. A pan that smells of soap or last night's onions will pass that off into your recado. The pan is part of the recipe. - 2
Toast the hard spices first
Add the broken canela, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, and cumin to the dry comal. Toast for two to three minutes, shaking the pan constantly so nothing sits still. The cumin will darken first and start to dance. The peppercorns will pop quietly. The kitchen will smell like the spice stalls at Mercado 20 de Noviembre, sweet, sharp, woody, all at once. That smell is the oils releasing. The moment you have it, slide the spices off the comal onto a plate to stop the cooking.
- 3
Toast the herbs separately
Lower the heat. Add the oregano, thyme, marjoram, and crumbled bay to the comal. Herbs are delicate and burn in seconds. Toast for 30 to 45 seconds, shaking the whole time, until they release their aroma and turn a shade darker. Tip them out onto the plate with the spices the moment they smell awake. Asi se hace y punto.
- 4
Cool completely
Spread everything in a single layer on the plate and let it cool to room temperature. This takes about ten minutes. Grinding warm spices traps steam in the powder and the recado will turn pasty and lose its bloom. Patience now saves the whole batch.
- 5
Grind to a fine powder
Transfer the cooled spices and herbs to a metate, a molcajete, or a clean electric spice grinder. If you use a metate, work in small passes, the canela will resist and your wrists will know it. If you use a grinder, pulse in two batches so the blade does not heat the spices. Grind until the recado is a fine, even powder. No visible chunks of clove or peppercorn. Pass it through a fine-mesh sieve and regrind anything that does not go through.
A coffee grinder dedicated to spices is the practical home compromise. A metate is the right tool. They give you different powders, the metate keeps the oils inside the grind. Both are real recados. - 6
Store and rest
Funnel the recado into a clean glass jar with a tight lid. Let it rest for at least 24 hours before using. The flavors marry in the dark and the powder settles into itself. Store in a cool dark cupboard, never above the stove. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you store it like a Oaxacan cook would.
Chef Tips
- •Buy whole spices, never pre-ground. Ground spices lose their volatile oils within weeks and the whole point of this recado is the bloom you get from toasting fresh whole spice on a hot comal. The cinnamon must be true canela mexicana, the soft layered Ceylon kind, not the hard cassia bark sold as cinnamon in most US supermarkets. Cassia is bitter and overpowering and it will ruin your recado.
- •If you can source oregano de monte from an Oaxacan importer, do it. It is the herb that makes Oaxacan food taste Oaxacan. Mexican oregano (Lippia graveolens) is the next best thing and far better than Mediterranean oregano (Origanum vulgare), which is a different species entirely and tastes wrong in this context. No me vengas con atajos.
- •The recado keeps its strength for about three months in a sealed glass jar in a dark cupboard. After that the cloves and canela start to dull. Make small batches. A senora in Tlacolula told me once: 'el recado viejo es polvo, el recado fresco es sabor.' Old recado is dust, fresh recado is flavor. She was right.
Advance Preparation
- •The whole point of this recado is to be made ahead. It needs at least 24 hours of resting time after grinding for the flavors to marry, and it is best between three days and three weeks after making.
- •Store in a sealed glass jar in a cool dark cupboard for up to three months. Do not refrigerate, the moisture will dull the spices.
- •Make a double batch and keep one jar for moles and adobos and another for everyday seasoning of meats, beans, and braises.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 2g)
Calories
5 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
1 mg
Total Carbohydrates
1 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
0 g
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